Family Secrets
by Angelica Diablo
Summary: NW Fic. Hakan is a normal teenage girl, just like everyone else, until strange memories begin to float into her mind, and the taste of blood fills her mouth. Impossible? Don't worry, she thinks so too. This is the first chapter. Please review.


Family Secrets  
Angelica Diablo  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the Night World; I just put my own twist on the old story, and   
added a few of my own characters. Please give me some constructive criticism in your   
reviews, as this is my first Night World fan fic.  
  
  
  
Blood. There was the memory of the taste of blood in her mouth. Hakan Bluehorse   
opened her eyes in shock from the vision. Her eyeteeth were tender suddenly, and she   
found her eyes were more sensitive to the light from her lamp as her mother flicked the   
switch by her door way.  
  
"Hakan, what have I told you about shutting yourself away like this? You need to get   
out and join the rest of the family. It's like we don't know you any more." Chenoa   
Bluehorse scolded her daughter in her thick accent.  
  
"I'll be out in a moment mom." Hakan promised as she tried to stretch her legs out.   
Both her feet had fallen asleep from the way she'd been sitting on them.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye, Hakan could see her mother's dark, sun-wrinkled brow   
scrunch up in a frown. Her raven black hair was already showing signs of graying   
around her temples. The older woman was in her late forties, and already appeared   
much older from stress. Chenoa nodded her head once. "If you're not out in five   
minutes I'm sending your sister in here after you." She warned.  
  
The older woman turned and softly shut the door behind her. "Great…just who I feel   
like dealing with right now." Hakan thought to herself as she stood up.  
  
In the mirror hanging on her wall she looked herself in the face. Her dark chocolate eyes   
stared back at her, daring her to think about her problems. Her golden tan skin held no   
freckles, and her coarse strait black hair fell around her shoulders like a fine veil that had   
just been pulled from her face. She knew she was beautiful.  
  
Not just in the way most teenage girls seemed to have a glow about them. There was a   
strange aura to her, and she could sense it in the looks other people gave her. She held   
an intangible quality that seemed to repel those people who didn't know her well, but   
attract their gaze all the same.  
  
She opened her mouth and lifted her lip to inspect her eyeteeth. They were still aching   
from the strange experience she'd just gone through. It had happened before; she'd be   
trying to meditate, and before she knew it she had cravings she couldn't describe,   
accompanied by visions. All she knew was that she could taste blood in her mouth. She   
knew she should be repulsed by it, as every other normal person would be. Yet   
somehow, she wasn't. The taste almost excited her. And that frightened her most of all.  
  
In her reflection she could see her teeth, both of them fairly sharp points. Her dentist   
had always asked her if he could file them down for her, they were far more prominent   
than eyeteeth were supposed to be. She had told him no, she didn't mind them. Now   
however, they seemed to be slightly longer then usual. She ran the tip of her tong over   
their points, and she noted that they seemed to be sharper than usual as well.  
  
She stood, inspecting her teeth in the mirror. The more she poked at them, she swore   
that they grew in length and sharpness. She gazed into her own eyes and saw a flash of   
silver among the chocolate brown that was trademark of her family. There was   
something old there, something primal. Something that scared her, it made her turn her   
head away in time to see her older sister opening the door.  
  
"Momma told me to tell you to get out here and socialize before you become like a bat."   
Cocheta told her before meeting Hakan's face with her eyes. "Hakan, something is   
wrong with your eyes…" Cocheta trailed off for a moment as she inspected her younger   
sister. "They are strange in color. Are you becoming like a bat?" She asked.  
  
Hakan shook her head. It was all she could do to keep her mouth closed. She didn't   
dare let her new teeth show.   
  
"Hakan, you're shivering. Why are you shivering? What's going on? Why aren't you   
speaking?" Cocheta asked, now sounding worried.  
  
Hakan only shook her head again. The feeling was receding slowly, although she still   
didn't trust herself to open her mouth. Cocheta was now looking at her with almost fear   
in her wide brown eyes. Hakan realized that she was shaking badly. She forced herself   
to breath as deeply as she could, and tried to regain control.   
  
Cocheta was slowly beginning to back out of the room when Hakan finally found her   
voice. "Wait, I'm sorry. My throat is dry. What's wrong with my eyes?" She asked   
playing innocent. She knew her voice might have revealed too much with a tiny squeak   
at the end of her sentence, but she prayed that Cocheta missed it.  
  
Either missed or ignored, but Cocheta finally nodded and said, "Alright. Come on out   
then, before momma gets worried and comes after us both."  
  
Hakan nodded. "I'm on my way." She said and followed her sister into the family   
room. There, her younger twin brother and sister, Braeden and Brianna were playing on   
the floor with their toys. Mr. And Mrs. Bluehorse were sitting on the couch waiting for   
the family to gather together and get situated.  
  
Cocheta took a seat in an armchair, and Hakan sat on the floor away from the twins.   
They were busy driving their toy trucks and cars around, and she didn't feel like having   
her feet turned into speed bumps.  
  
"How have you been doing in school Cocheta?" Their father asked her. Hakan tried to   
pay attention to the conversation at hand, but after a moment found her mind slipping   
back to the strange events in her room.  
  
"It's like, it's like I'm a vampire out of some strange horror story." She thought to   
herself. "But this just can't be…vampire's aren't real. I've read far too many books for   
my own good. I'm not growing fangs, my eyes aren't turning colors. It was a trick of   
the light. Just some crazy optical illusion." She told herself sternly. But she didn't   
believe her own words; she could still remember the yearning for blood. The more she   
thought about it, the more it scared her.  
  
What was she supposed to do? Where could she go for help? Surly she'd be locked up   
in the blink of an eye if she went to her school guidance councilors, or even her parents   
and said, "Help me, I think I'm turning into a vampire. I crave blood, my eyes turn   
colors, and I sprouted fangs over the week end!" Yeah, that was a plan all right.  
  
"I may as well just lock myself up now and throw away the key! I've gone completely   
insane! There is no other explanation for it, I must be going nuts." She thought to   
herself.  
  
She continued to struggle through the conversation during "Family Time," and tried to   
feign interest in what the others were saying. Still, her mind remained fixated on the   
simple fact that she was clearly loosing her mind.  
  
Finally she was able to slip away, claiming she had to go finish her homework. Back in   
the safety of her room she opened her journal and started writing. For several months   
she'd been keeping track of every time she craved blood, or had something else strange   
happen to her when she meditated. She began to write:  
  
Today it happened again. Things were fine until the vision came. I was running   
through the forest, faster then I've ever heard of someone running before. My quarry   
was up ahead; I could smell the fear. It was night, but I could see better than I should   
have been able to. I thought at first I was a cat, like my spirit animal, but I was on only   
two legs. I easily caught up to the man who was running from me and clamped a firm   
hand on his shoulder. He turned to fight me off, but he couldn't hurt me. I looked at   
him for a moment, and he suddenly went limp. Then…  
  
She stopped writing there. She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence on paper.   
  
"I bit him." She whispered out loud, the words sounding strange to her mouth. It just   
didn't make sense. Where was her mind getting these images? She had also known   
something else, that the images were old.  
  
"Old memories from another time." The words flitted through her mind. They didn't   
make any sense either, but as soon as she let them tumble through her thoughts she   
could feel the truth in them. In her heart, she could tell that the events she had seen had   
happened at some point in time.  
  
Dazed, Hakan closed the journal and stared absently at the red cloth-bound cover. Red;   
like the blood that had been spilled. Red; the color of love and murder. Red.  
  
A shiver ran down her spine as she stuffed the journal into her book bag and pulled out   
her math binder. She forced herself to finish the word problems, trying to wash the   
alien images from her mind. That's when a new wave of images flooded her brain,   
unprovoked and full of red.  



End file.
